The 3 Movies you Shouldn't miss to Watch - Review

Parents need to know that A Quiet Place is a horror movie about a family that avoids deadly monsters by staying quiet and communicating via American Sign Language. The family survives through teamwork and bravery, even when they're scared or unsure. Expect monster violence, including blood spurts and puddles (a character steps on a nail and leaves bloody footprints), as well as guns and shooting. Children, including a baby, are in peril, and one child has been swept away and killed (offscreen) by a monster. A mangled corpse is briefly shown, and characters commit suicide by shouting. There's also some arguing and a few jumps scares. A pregnant woman goes into labor and gives birth (offscreen). This is a clever, gripping, satisfying horror movie that should appeal not just to horror hounds but to casual viewers as well.

As a father of 3, I am very cautious of what my children see. But oh boy A Quiet Place is a thrilling wild ride. It is everything I wanted it to be. It had great tension and suspense from beginning to end, which I personally loved. There are some bloody images though out the film but is definitely not overdone. A perfect thriller that needs to be seen. It might be frightening to younger children for sure. My opinion is ages 14 and up, but it all depends on your child.

There’s an old cliché about nothing being stronger than a mother’s love. And lots of times, that’s true. But not every mother’s love is gentle.

Malory says she was “raised by wolves,” under the strict, demanding hand of her father. Given her upbringing, she never wanted to be a mother. Now she is, and she takes her responsibilities—or what she sees as her responsibilities—very seriously.

“Life is more than what is,” Tom tells her. “It’s what it could be. You need to promise them dreams that might never come true. You need to love them, knowing that you could lose them at any second.”

Malory’s so wrapped up in surviving the present that she forgets to give her children hope for the future. I think there’s an intentional real-world echo to be found in that.. . Hope and love—these are the things that life is built from, Bird Box tells us. Without it, we live in fear and despair, if we live at all.

Such is the movie’s message, and it’s a good one as far as it goes. But the story itself travels rough roads getting there. And while it’s hard to find a pretty vision of the “end of the world” in movies, this can feel particularly bleak and violent.

It gives me an even greater appreciation of A Quiet Place—a similar movie released, like Bird Box, in 2018. There, humanity also has been largely destroyed by unknown visitors—one where sound, not sight, is the killer. Again, we see a strong mother willing to do whatever she can to save her children, (including the unborn one she carries). But A Quiet Place tells its story with more power and less content, settling into theaters with (an admittedly caveat-filled) PG-13 and becoming a surprise awards-season contender.

Bird Box won’t be up for any awards, most likely, and it’s R all the way. It didn’t need to be. Its good messages are undermined by its sex, language, and brutality. And like its beleaguered characters, I wonder whether a blindfold might be in order.

While this movie is based on a 2015 novel, it's impossible to find fault with those who see the many similarities between this movie and 2017's A Quiet Place. The debatable timing of "who came first" makes The Silence a movie that cannot be dismissed as simply a "mockbuster." That said, on its own terms, The Silence is a decent slice of dystopian fare for the teen set. It's a little rough at times -- the CGI isn't the best, the movie's biggest antagonist isn't given enough time to fully develop into someone the audience can root against, and some of the tropes (the baby who can't be shushed, the dog who won't stop barking in a world where silence is the only way to survive) come off as more than a little stock -- but The Silence still manages to deliver a great deal of suspense, as well as a willingness to fully explore the large and small ramifications of the cataclysmic event in question.

Overall, the cast rescues a script that feels not quite there. As the father, Stanley Tucci strikes a nice balance between a loving parent and a guy trying to get in touch with his brave side. As the teen daughter, Kiernan Shipka doesn't limit or define her character as strictly being a deaf teen, but as a character who has spent and continues to spend her life adapting to daunting challenges. Overall, The Silence isn't a perfect movie, but it isn't boring either.